Turkish foreign minister urged Russia to let go of its “provocative” position against Ankara, a day after a Russian serviceman was spotted holding a surface-to-air missile launcher as a Russian warship passed through the Bosphorus.
Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated his description of the incident as a “provocation”, saying he believed “in this period” it was not a coincidence.
“Russia has to abandon this attitude,” Cavusoglu told a private-run television channel today.
In the footage aired by several Turkish television shows, a Russian sailor holding a missile launcher on his shoulder could be seen on the deck of the Caesar Kunikov landing ship which passed through the Bosphorus near Istanbul yesterday as it sailed from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara.
Responding to the footage on NTV yesterday, Cavusoglu told reporters in the southern Turkish province of Antalya that the incident was a “provocation”. He added: “It is not the right approach”.
He said that warships passing through the Bosphorus were being regulated in accordance with the 1936 Montreux Convention. “The passing of the [Russian] ship in this way is clearly provocative and it has to be terminated.”
He also mentioned the fact that Turkey had so far never intervened when any ship passed through the strait.
About the downing of a Russian warplane that breached Turkish airspace on 24 November, the minister invited Russian authorities to “clearly discuss everything and overcome” the incident that has led to a war of words between the leaders of the two countries.
“This tension has no benefit for Russia. Apparently, there are inconveniences both in Russia and the world due to this tension,” Cavusoglu said.
Meanwhile, the foreign minister announced that the president of the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government will visit Ankara this week at a time when Iraq has urged Turkey to withdraw its forces from Iraq’s Mosul district.
Turkish military recently released details of its training programme for Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Iraq.
According to the Turkish army’s statement, Friday’s deployment included around 150 Turkish troops to replace training forces already in place in Mosul. Along with the troops, 20 to 25 tanks were also dispatched to the area.
Turkish army sources said on Saturday that they had been training fighters in four provinces of northern Iraq with the ultimate aim of fighting Daesh.
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